05/19/2007

Record-Eagle/Garret Ellison
Original works of art created by area mental health care recipients hang in the Community Room at the Traverse Area District Library.

Library hosts mental health art project

Sunday reception puts spotlight on 'revealing' works

By Garret Ellison

gellison@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Colleen Faketty stopped by the Traverse Area District Library on a whim and found herself caught up in something heavy.

"Very intense and revealing,” is how the former Traverse City resident visiting from Sault Ste. Marie described the Mental Health Stigma Busters artwork hanging at the library.

Oil on canvas, digital images and 30 photobiographies drape the walls of the Community Room. The works spring from a Northern Lakes Community Mental Health program that gathered together over 60 service recipients in the region this spring for a series of special groups.

"It's so hush-hush,” Faketty said about stigma. "I was really surprised when I read in the paper that this would be here.”

The show runs until May 29. There will be a public artist reception Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. spotlighting May as Mental Health Month. Several pieces are marked for sale, some are already sold.

Mary Pierce, a Northwestern Michigan College English instructor, gave a half-hour lecture on basic photography to each group during the project.

She said most of the participants took her advice to heart, going for symbolic images married with photo composing techniques like the "rule-of-thirds” and getting low for the shots.

"People spend a whole semester learning some of those things,” Pierce said. "I was real impressed.”

Shelly Nixon found that shooting the image in her mind was more difficult than she thought. Writing is something she was familiar with, but lighting, angle and depth-of-field constraints tripped her up.

"Trying to put together the compositions was very difficult,” she said.

Nixon attended the Cadillac groups with her mother, who came along for support, doing the project as well.

Nixon's work hangs at the library alongside a striking photograph by a man identified only as "Todd.” He is shrouded in a hooded sweatshirt, holding an antique pistol against his temple.

"That was very dramatic,” Nixon said. "You couldn't get a better representation of the feeling in that picture.”

His story tells of mental disorders ravaged by substance abuse. His closing sentence: "Please don't judge me until you know me.”

One project image shows a young man sitting in a library corner surrounded by books, holding one titled "Beyond Prozac.”

Another project shows two images of an egg. One is intact. The other: cracked open and oozing yolk — a representation of Wayne Ennis' state of mind while he was battling chronic depression.

"It just expressed it so well,” said Leslie Sladek, a group participant who also works at Northern Lakes Community Mental Health. "You could really see what he was talking about without hearing the words.”

Sladek's photobiography is not hanging at the library, but she attended the Traverse City groups, having gone through a rough period in the mid-90s. With the help of a psychiatrist and some lifestyle changes, she's been able to recover substantially and help others who are in the same boat.

Sladek's son took black-and-white pictures of her huddled in a corner for her project. She said the long winter months this year were definitely a challenge.

"I'm there to help,” she said. "But the journey never ends.”